"Are you ok?" Nelly asked as she closed the curtains.
"Yeah... My legs are really sore though..." I said, laying on the bed. When Grovyle and I had swapped our bond and he had filled me with his strength, I had tapped into his incredible speed. I had moved so fast that I didn't even know what was happening at the time. Moving so fast had put a real strain on my legs though – understandably so, since I was pretty sure no person had ever run that fast before.
Jordan had been recording the battlefield with his laptop's camera, and, although I had gone straight to bed to rest my legs, he had shared the footage of what had been captured with everyone else.
Nelly told me all about it, how in the footage there was little more than a blur and what looked like a gust of wind, before I appeared at the other end of the field out of nowhere. Jordan slowed the footage down as much as he could, and you could barely make out what resembled legs as I ran past.
"Well, that makes sense..." Nelly nodded. "Coach Kudou said you used up all your energy. You pushed it all into your legs, but even then, moving so fast... You must have a lot of lactic acid in there now."
"Yeah... No person is meant to move that quickly." I winced as I shifted my weight. "But I'm glad I did."
"Me too." She laughed. "You really do amaze me sometimes."
"Hey, I do it to myself too." I chuckled.
"Still... Who knew the Bond Phenomenon could be reversed like that? That was insane... But if it takes so much out of a person, is it worth it...? Of course – it was worth it this time. I saved her... But why was such a thing even possible? ...Coach Kudou told us what happened. He must know more about it – I'll have to ask him after the match tomorrow..."
"I'll go and bring you something from the cafeteria." Nelly said, walking towards the door. "Try not to move too much, ok?"
"Thank you. I won't."
*
"He knows a lot about the Bond Phenomenon..." Kiria thought to herself as she strolled through the hallway. "Why is that? Kudou doesn't have a battling background. Or one in research, for that matter. Why does a man like that have so many mysteries? First he won't talk about the Prime Minister's disappearance, then he comes out with all this information that a person couldn't possibly pull out of thin air... Well, now that I have this equipment on me, I think it's time to interview him again."
Before joining the Asian team, Kiria had interviewed Kudou regarding the situation around Japan's Prime Minister. He had remained tight-lipped, and as a result, Megan struck a deal with the coach to allow Kiria to join his team to keep an eye on him, just in case a lead on the Prime Minister's whereabouts came up. Another condition laid on the table was that Kudou would have to be open to interrogation periodically throughout Kiria's time watching him.
It was now that Kiria decided to enact that privilege, knocking on his office door as the Sun began to set outside.
"Come in." His voiced floated from inside.
Kiria opened the door and saw him sat at his desk, reviewing the data Xene had printed for him. "Kudou, I'd like to ask you to come with me, please."
"That time, is it?" Kudou stood without argument. "Very well, but I'm telling you, Miss Kurono, my answers will remain the same."
"We'll see about that, Sir." She held the door open and he came out into the hall. "There's a building I had commandeered when we arrived. It's property of my department and a short walk away. As you know, our conversations are to remain highly confidential."
"Of course. Lead the way."
*
The place Kiria had spoken of was a small single-storey building with three rooms. The outside was a bleak grey, and the inside looked a lot like what one might see in a prison. Upon entering, there was a single hallway that ran horizontally, effectively making up one of the three rooms. At the other end was a bathroom. A large portion of the wall in front of the two as they entered was actually reinforced glass. A large window looked into an interrogation room, where a table with two chairs were set up and ready. A single light hung from the ceiling.
"Please take a seat inside." Kiria gestured, shutting the front door behind them.
Kudou approached the interrogation room and pushed the door open as Kiria flipped a switch that caused the single light in there to buzz into life.
She watched through the large glass pane as Kudou sat down at the table, facing forward.
After checking her pockets, Kiria followed into the room and shut the door, sitting opposite the man.
"Now, then." Kiria crossed her arms. "I don't suppose you're willing to talk about what happened to the Prime Minister?"
"I can't." Kudou said simply, sat up straight in his chair.
"You say you can't, but why not?"
He shook his head.
"You understand that withholding this kind of information could lead to your arrest?"
"...I do."
"Then why do you resist? You clearly know something. You were the last person known to be in contact with him. Tell me what you know."
"I can't."
"Of course you can!" Kiria frowned. "Look, I happen to believe that you aren't a bad person – far from it. But your insistence on keeping vital information to yourself is infuriating. Do you or do you not know the whereabouts of the Japanese Prime Minister?"
Kudou didn't flinch, his eyes unmoving. No response.
"Tch..." Kiria shook her head. "You're lucky we are the ones monitoring you. I have a feeling that the government itself wouldn't be so lenient."
Again, no words.
"Ok, tell me this." Kiria leant forward slightly. "Is someone else keeping you quiet?"
There. To the untrained eye, there was nothing out of the ordinary. But Kiria saw Kudou's eye twitch ever so slightly, his gaze slowly shifting away.
"Someone else has you silenced." Kiria sat up. "Then tell me, Sir, what authority is so high that you would follow it over your own country's?"
Kudou shook his head, clearly in distress.
"Look, you tell me what you know, and whoever wants you to keep quiet, we can protect you from. Deal?"
"No."
"...No?"
"You can't." Kudou said, a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
"Can't what?" Kiria leaned in again, a cold breeze brushing over the back of her neck. She froze.
"You can't protect me from this... Nobody can..."
Kiria looked around, completely still. There was no air conditioning. No doors were open. No windows to speak of. The glass pane behind her couldn't be moved. And the weather outside was mild – perhaps even a little warm.
And yet, the temperature in the room was dropping slowly. There was a small patch of mould in the bottom left corner of the room, dark as the blackest night. Strange, considering Kiria had prepped this room just the day before and had seen no signs of dirt whatsoever.
"All right..." Kiria slowly sat back down. "Let me ask you one last thing."
Kudou looked her in the eyes, as if begging her to stop lest something awful happened.
The light above their heads flickered.
Kiria frowned and tensed her legs. "We aren't alone, are we?"
With a pained expression, Kudou slowly shook his head, letting out a breathless response.
"No."
All Hell broke loose in that instant.
Kiria had been watching the back wall out of the corner of her eye. She knew the answer to her last question before she had posed it. The mould in the bottom corner of the room had slowly been creeping upwards, expanding. There was no mould at all, and Kudou's response had confirmed it, for the moment the word 'no' left his lips, the darkness in the corner of the room exploded outwards, a sharp black tendril shooting out of the wall.
Kiria had been expecting something, and threw herself out of her chair. The pitch-black spear sliced through the air where she had been and smashed the reinforced glass pane behind her effortlessly. The agent hit the floor and rolled, shards of glass raining down all around. She sprung to her feet, a cut on her left leg causing a trickle of blood to roll over her ripped tights.
The malicious presence slowly retracted its black arm. It snaked eerily through the air, before floating close to Kudou's head.
"Well, well..." A cold voice resonated throughout the room. "Impressive reactions."
"Who the Hell are you?!" Kiria called out to it, her concealed gun now drawn.
Kudou didn't look surprised. If anything, he looked sorry as he sat there, powerless to do anything.
"Kudou! What is that thing?!"
"I-" He opened his mouth to speak, and the black tendril wormed its way closer, hovering inches from his lips.
"Shh... Hush, puppet..."
Kudou winced and remained as still as he could.
"This thing..." Kiria thought about it. "This has to be the same thing that took that Poipole..."
She remembered how her secret camera had captured footage of the sleeping Poipole being disintegrated by something otherworldly in the middle of the night.
"What do you want?" Kiria composed herself, training her gun on the wall where the black arm was flowing from.
"You're the one who's been snooping around..." The voice chuckled. "Perhaps if you'd minded your own business, you'd have lived longer."
Kiria squeezed the trigger and fired her gun. The bullet smashed into the far wall, right in the centre of the black being. The tiles of the wall cracked and fell to pieces where the bullet hit.
"Primitive Human weapon." The ominous fiend cackled, lashing out with a second tendril that shot out of the wall.
"Gah!" Kiria staggered back and her gun was sliced in half as the creature barely missed her a second time. She smacked into the wall and dropped the useless weapon onto the shards of glass on the floor.
"Don't resist. There's no pain..." The two slithering arms reared up, ready to strike.
"Crap... I need to do something..." Kiria reached into her pocket.
"Whatever you're doing, it won't save you." The voice talked down at her. "Your fate is sealed. Accept it, or the man dies."
The two tendrils weaved between each other, slowly circling Kudou's head.
"You were the one who attacked Poipole, right?" Kiria asked, rethinking her strategy.
"If I lose Kudou here, this whole case is dead. I have to get to him..."
"Yes."
"What happened to it? Where did you take it?" She took hold of an item.
"It went nowhere!" The voice laughed. "It is dead!"
"So you did kill it..." She growled, pulling out what seemed to be a tube of chapstick. "All right then, answer me this..." Kiria unscrewed the cap. "What about the Japanese Prime Minister?! Was that your doing too?!"
"That fool is long dead!" The voice roared, its pointed arms moving away from Kudou and readying to lunge at Kiria.
"Tch..." Kiria felt a burning rage bubble up inside her. She looked Kudou dead in the eyes. He was taken aback by what he saw. By all means, Kiria was a captive about to be slaughtered, but her eyes were a mixture of rage and resolve. It was almost as if she was giving him an instruction.
The evil lances darted forward, a pincer movement that left no avenue for escape.
Kiria clicked the cap of her chapstick back down and jammed her eyes shut.
The little tube exploded in a magnificent light – a powerful flash grenade packed into a small container. In the confines of the small room, the light razed all the colours to white, erasing all texture for a brief moment.
As she had hoped, Kiria's flashbang had wiped out every ounce of darkness, and with no shadow to leap from, the hideous dark tentacles faded away. But Kiria knew that wouldn't be the last of them. The moment the light settled down, she would be under attack again. So in that moment that the tube exploded, she threw herself blindly forward with her hand back in her pocket. She flew over the table, tackling Kudou to the ground with a hard 'thump'. The instant they landed, she pulled out one of the devices that Alfred had just supplied her with – a small pink sphere – and slammed it down on the floor.
With their eyes still forced shut due to the intensity of the light, Kiria and Kudou could only hear a frequent and constant bashing, like a sword against a shield, over and over. It grew more and more furious, but nothing else seemed to happen. Kiria opened her eyes slowly, blinking several times to adjust to the light that had returned to normal. To her surprise and relief, the equipment that Megan had made her worked exactly how she wanted it to.
She and Kudou were sat inside a large, spherical shield that was tinted pink.
"What is this?!" The ominous voice growled from outside. Its arms were smashing violently against the forcefield, which repelled every blow. It was like being inside an indestructible bubble.
The tech was in fact a capsulised barrier that opened upon contact with a solid surface. The moment the pink ball had touched the floor, it expanded and spread out into a large sphere that passed through matter, for that was how it had been designed.
Megan's team had created it so that it repelled absolutely anything that wasn't from Earth. By conducting research into the Ultra Wormholes, her scientists had been able to pinpoint our planet's exact dimensional coordinates, and that was all that these new shields knew. They were completely intangible to any being or organism native to our own planet, but an impenetrable barrier to anything from anywhere else in the universe.
"Heh." Kiria sighed. "Ok, they work... That's good. Kudou!"
"Ugh... Huh...?" The Coach of the Aegis team rubbed his eyes. "What the...?"
"You're safe. That thing can't reach us in here."
"Ah... Really...?" He was amazed and relieved. Like he was finally free from a demon that had plagued him for too long.
"Now, please tell me what the Hell that thing is!"
"It... It killed him..." Kudou gritted his teeth. "It killed him while I was talking to him on the phone..."
"What...? But why?! He was in a meeting with world leaders! Why was he the only one?!"
"Because he was the only one who repeated something that that thing didn't want to be repeated." Kudou growled. "Then it came after me. Told me since the Prime Minister couldn't keep his mouth shut, I was the one in charge of keeping that knowledge secret."
Kiria had the answer she wanted. She knew what had happened to the Prime Minister. That was all she really needed – all the job required of her – but still, she needed to know more.
"What information did he pass on to you that was so important?"
"...I... I can't tell you..."
"Kudou!" Kiria frowned. "Come on! Look! You're perfectly safe here! You can tell me!"
"I CAN'T!" He yelled.
Kiria blinked, taken aback.
"I can't..." He repeated. "It's not about me anymore..."
"That's right!" The being outside the shield hissed. "Remember what you swore to me!"
"I haven't forgotten!" Kudou growled.
"...It has somebody held hostage, doesn't it?" Kiria examined his face
"Gh..." He nodded.
"Who? I can have my team go to them and protect them-"
"No. Nobody could reach her fast enough..."
"Who is she?"
"His dear daughter." The beast outside cackled.
"You... Have a daughter...?" Kiria didn't remember ever reading about Kudou having any family.
Kudou took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Yes. She's... In hospital. She's been there for seven years... In a coma..." The words visibly pained him.
"And if you tell anyone what this monster wants, then..."
"I'll eviscerate her where she lays!" The voice let out a blood-curdling screech.
"You..." Kiria clenched her fists. "How dare you...!"
"Save it..." Kudou shook his head. "This is the only way I can protect her. I'm sorry..."
"Kudou... What happened to her...?"
The man looked up at the pink shield surrounding him, and watched the wailing arms lash out to no avail above his head.
"She was only seven years old..."
*
Seven years ago...
Percival Kudou and his daughter Poppy were travelling by bus to one of Japan's public nature reserves in the mountains. It was said to be one of the most beautiful sights in the whole country, with fresh flowing rivers and beautifully lush trees. Poppy loved nature more than anything, and had been immensely excited on that day, so much so that her father had to persuade her to sit still on the bus.
It was that bus ride, though, that ultimately tore Kudou's life apart in an instant.
They were about halfway through the journey when one of the passengers towards the front of the large tour bus stood up while the vehicle was in motion. The bus had just begun its ascent up the mountain path, slowly winding past a beautiful treeline with the sea out in the distance.
Poppy was glued to the window, wiping the lavender hair out of her blue eyes as she marvelled at the Pokemon flying high above the trees.
Kudou was sat beside her, and the movement at the front of the bus grabbed his attention.
The man who had stood up was walking slowly towards the driver. Kudou saw his eyes in the mirror on the top of the wall at the front. They were void of all hope, broken and tired. The man's walking was eerie, like he had a purpose that he knew he must carry out.
Alarm bells rang in Kudou's head immediately.
"Poppy." He kept his eyes on the man as he shambled forward.
"Yeah?" His daughter looked up at him.
"I need you to stay calm, ok Honey?" He slowly rose from his seat.
"Daddy...?"
On the wall was a small glass box with a fire axe inside. 'In case of emergency, break glass', it read.
The man was walking down the steps now.
Kudou smashed his arm against the glass, alerting everyone on the bus.
The broken man who was at the front now looked back, locking eyes with Kudou. He simply shook his head, a soulless husk with no regard for others. Then he turned and began to wrestle with the bus driver, fighting for control of the wheel.
There were screams as the bus jolted from side to side. The mountain path was coming up to a turn, but the bus driver was fighting a losing battle. His attacker was determined to wreak havoc.
Kudou wobbled on his feet as the bus jerked around, people crying out all around him.
"Daddy!" Poppy called up to him, fear creeping across her face, though she had no idea what was going on.
"Hang on, Honey!" He tried to sound calm as he grasped the fire axe. "Close your eyes and watch your head!"
Kudou swung the axe as hard as he could, determined that he wasn't going to go down with this maniac.
The glass cracked. He swung again. The cracks rippled outwards, shaking the pane of glass in its frame.
He looked back. The edge of the cliff was coming up fast. The man up front had closed his eyes, accepting his fate. The lunatic was taking all of the innocent people on the bus down with him on his suicide trip.
"Nngah!" Kudou swung with everything he had and the window smashed to pieces, glass showering the seats and falling out onto the road. Thick shards of glass hung onto the pane as the bus shuddered forward.
Out of time, Percival Kudou dropped the axe and took his daughter in his arms.
"Daddy, what's going on?!" Poppy screamed.
"Hold on and don't let go!" He held her close and ran for the window.
The bus rolled straight through the railings at the bend of the mountain and went airborne.
Kudou tucked his daughter's head into his chest and threw himself out the window, his shoulder crashing through the remaining glass.
The two of them hung in the air as the bus tumbled down the mountainside, dozens of people's lives snuffed out in an instant by one man who had lost all hope. Gravity and momentum dragged Kudou and Poppy down. As the edge of the cliff loomed, the desperate father shot his left arm out. His fingers caught the lip of the mountain path. Their momentum twisted his body around and he thought his arm would be torn from its socket, but he managed to hold on.
He was dangling over the edge of a sheer drop, holding onto his daughter with his other hand.
"DADDY!" Poppy screamed, her body flailing below him.
"I've got you!" Kudou shouted, his right hand firmly closed around her left wrist. "HOLD ON!"
His daughter cried in fear, the shrill screams ringing in his ears as the bus crashed into the ground with a horrifyingly distant crunch down below.
Kudou tried to lift himself up, putting everything he could into his left arm. As he struggled, pieces of the cliff came away beneath his hand and the pair slipped down an inch, causing another frightened scream to come from the dangling child.
"Ngh... Hah..." Kudou winced, his arms burning. "I've got you...!"
More weakened ground gave way, and a chunk of rock tumbled over the edge.
And suddenly, Poppy's screaming stopped.
Kudou looked down. There was a bloody gash on his daughter's forehead where the rock had hit her. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was left open.
"Gh... Poppy...! POPPY!"
His daughter didn't respond.
"No... No...! Help! HELP!" Kudou screamed at the top of his lungs.
A flash came from his pocket, and his Haxorus appeared, digging its claws into the mountainside.
The Pokemon let out a distressed wail that matched its owner's own cries. And then Kudou felt something rush through his head. A perspective strange, like looking through a different pair of eyes for a brief second, before an immense wellspring of strength flowed throughout his whole body.
"AAARRRGHHH!" He let out a roar as he used all of his energy to wrench himself upwards over the edge and onto the side of the road.
Haxorus had given its power to Kudou in his most desperate moment. The man hurriedly pulled his daughter up to safety and laid her down.
"Ah... Poppy..."
He fumbled for his PokeBall and looked over the edge. "Haxorus, re-!"
The cliffside below gave way, the wall falling apart. Haxorus' perch was destroyed and the Pokemon fell away from the mountainside, its limbs flailing.
"HAXORUS!" Kudou held the PokeBall out at full stretch, the red light blasting out from it to return the Pokemon to its safe haven.
Haxorus tumbled down amongst the rocks, the red tether chasing it at top speed. But the light just couldn't reach far enough, cutting off before it could touch the Pokemon.
Kudou watched in despair as his Haxorus disappeared far below, its cries distant and fading.
"NOOOOOO!" Kudou screamed, his eyes full of tears.
He turned to his daughter, his body sore from the immense feat of strength he had accomplished thanks to Haxorus' final act.
"Poppy!" He bent over her and cradled her head. "Poppy...!"
The little girl was still breathing, but no matter what he did, her father couldn't wake her from her sleep.
No matter how much he shouted, no matter how tight he held her, no matter how many tears splashed down on her face...
Kudou kissed his only daughter's forehead and broke down, covered in dirt, sweat and blood.
*
"Someone driving up the mountain stopped to help us..." Kudou concluded his tale, his voice shaking, the memory hanging heavy on his heart. "She hasn't woken up since..."
"Oh, Kudou..." Kiria was shocked. For all her research into the man, such a story had never appeared in the files.
"My wife died in childbirth... Poppy is all I have left..."
"Pathetic!" The ominous voice bellowed. "You Humans are weak!"
"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Kiria screamed back at it. Kudou's story resonated with her, for she too had lost somebody precious to her some time ago. And to hear this thing talk down to a man who was so clearly grieving made her blood boil.
"Ha! You dare take that tone with me?!"
"How about this..." Kiria composed herself. "I won't pry anymore. Kudou keeps your secret. He won't tell anyone. Not even me."
"You concede defeat, girl?"
"If that's what it takes for you to leave, then yes."
"Leave? Ha!"
"If you uphold your end of the deal and don't harm a hair on that little girl's head..." Kiria sighed. "Then I will drop everything. I won't tell a soul of what I know."
"You wish to bargain foo your lives? Very well. Agree to follow the same instructions that I have given this sniffling worm, and I will permit you to live. At least until judgement rains upon you all."
"Deal." Kiria said. "I don't care what I have to do."
"Good. It is simple. Continue fighting."
"What...?"
"In your silly competition." The voice laughed, drawing back its tendrils for the first time. "Fight your opponents. With as much effort as possible. Fight, and make your opponents fight harder. That is all I require of you, Worm."
"That's... It...?" Kiria looked at Kudou.
He nodded, wiping tears from his eyes.
"All right. Keep your hands off the girl, and I'll fight with all I have." Kiria was set in her resolve.
"Very good. Of course, the same rule applies to you... Tell nobody of my existence. Tell nobody of your precious Prime Minister's fate. Do this, and you may run free in your ignorance – for a while." The cackles rang round the room, before fading away.
"Remember – I'm watching you..." The whispers died out.
Kiria and Kudou looked at each other for a moment, before the former got to her feet and offered a hand.
"Come on." She said. "Let's get out of here."
"I'm sorry about all of this..." Kudou took her hand and stood.
"It's not your fault. That bastard is a coward for holding Poppy hostage. You're off the hook, Kudou. I'm sorry for the stress I've put you through."
Kudou simply shook his head.
"Looks like we've made a deal with the devil that we need to keep..." Kiria sighed, checking the wound on her thigh.
The two of them walked out of the pink shield, which provided no resistance at all. It was like walking through air. With nobody inside it, Kiria touched it from the outside and it reverted back to its original state, shrinking into a pink ball. She picked it up and put it in her pocket.
"Looks like these are more useful than I thought they'd be..."
That night, the weather took another dramatic turn. It went from a warm and mild climate to one that was ravaged by a snowstorm overnight...